...And Those Maryland Fans

For a recent alumnus, I’m a fairly well-traveled Hokie football fan. I’ve been to UVa three times. I’ve been to Miami twice, including 2004 with an ACC championship and Sugar Bowl berth on the line. In the Big East days, I went to Pittsburgh twice. In 2002, I even went to Western Michigan, where I had to fend off a drunk student taking a run at me from Frat Row as I walked to the game. I’ve been to four different bowl games, partying with hordes of Auburn, Bama and FSU fans. But never before have I experienced such a poisonous football atmosphere, and been subjected to such vicious personal treatment, as happened Thursday night at Maryland.

Outside the stadium wasn’t bad; we were waved into the parking deck adjoining the Comcast Center, and walked through the Hokie-dominated Comcast lot before turning toward the stadium. My friend and I got a couple of snide comments and some drunken booing from Maryland fans, but that’s normal and acceptable. When you’ve just brought a #3 football team and at least 8,000 road fans onto campus, you should expect mild harassment within the bounds of civilized behavior.

Inside the stadium, though, those bounds were crossed with impunity. We reached our seats in the third deck at about 5:45 PM; a smattering of other fans, mostly Hokies, had already entered as well, but the only area of the stadium heavily populated was the student section. The cheers that rose from that section started with the obscene and migrated toward the sexually disgusting. At one point, a spirit squad came onto the field to lead cheers, joined by someone wearing a red #99 football jersey. During this stretch, the spirit squad led a group of four male students with the F word spelled out on their backs onto the field; they were cheered, then returned to their seats. During this rally, the Hokie team had entered the field to practice; as the VT offense huddled in one corner of the end zone, the students pelted the players with debris as #99 waved and yelled encouragement.

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VT-Maryland Postgame Notes

I’ll just throw out some quick notes on Virginia Tech’s 28-9 win over Maryland Thursday night in College Park.

For the first three quarters, it felt as if both Tech and Maryland were trying to lose the game; the Terps just tried a little harder. That characterization isn’t fair to the Tech defense, though, which shut Maryland down for most of the game, allowing them to move the ball only in fits and starts. The Hokies’ D forced Maryland kicker Dan Ennis into three long field goal attempts; his first one barely quacked its way over from 38, while the other two (38 and 47, both drives off Marcus Vick INTs) were low and short. Their best chance at a touchdown was on the opening drive, before Hollenbach was intercepted at the 12.

Marcus Vick had his best game on the ground since he arrived at Tech, running for 133 yards and a touchdown; his passing stats were fine (14-23 for 211 yards) outside of three ghastly interceptions in the third quarter. If he needed to get that sort of thing out of his system, best to do it now; Hokie fans just hope his accuracy checks back in in time for Boston College’s visit next week. It will be a lot harder to create running holes through BC’s huge defensive line, with or without Matthias Kiwanuka.

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VT-Maryland Preview

Playtime is over for the 6-0, #3 Virginia Tech Hokies this week as they head for College Park to take on the 4-2 Maryland Terrapins on Thursday night at 7:45 (ESPN/XM 191). Last year, Maryland went into Blacksburg expecting to put up a fight, despite a mediocre season to date; instead they were mauled 55-6, and that embarrassment has stuck with them as they prepare for this one. Both teams took last week off; two weeks ago, the Hokies’ last game was a lackluster 41-14 pounding of Marshall, while the Terrapins won a 45-33 slugfest with Virginia in College Park.

Maryland brings a balanced offensive attack piloted by junior QB Sam Hollenbach, who has ascended from third/fourth string last year to become one of the top QBs in the ACC this year. His favorite target is senior TE Vernon Davis. Defensively, their line is nothing special, but the linebacking corps is upper-half in the ACC, led by senior D’Qwell Jackson, and the backfield is of similar quality.

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Callouts and Conspiracies

Today is a momentous day in BTN history. (Actually, last Thursday was; I just didn’t notice until lunch today.) I have now received my first-ever blog calling-out, wherein someone I don’t know devotes an entire post toward drawing my attention. So, congratulations, LawDawg; you have ascended the heights above such BTN luminaries as Tina the American Idol fan, and far surpassed Fanblogs’s legions of WVU-supporting morons, and gotten me to respond in a full post.

And perhaps I should be afraid, being called out by a law student with an unusual interest in (a) infectious diseases and (b) my current town of residence. Unfortunately for LD, though, I moved to Reston last fall, so I wasn’t around for the 1989 Ebola outbreak. And I was 9 years old anyway, so I probably wouldn’t have noticed unless everybody started wearing surgical masks or something. Sorry to disappoint. As for potential causes of death in Reston today, I’m more worried about speeding dot-commers in Range Rovers than killer monkey viruses.

But there’s one thing we’re all missing here. According to Wikipedia (not the most reliable source, I know), the infected monkey house was closed and converted to — get this — a day care center. And none of the kiddies have even gotten sick that we know of. A hop, skip, and a conspiracy-minded jump later, one might wonder: is someone using an unassuming suburban preschool to create legions of Ebola-resistant supertoddlers to take over the world? We are awfully close to DC, after all.

You might say that I have no proof they are. But can you prove they’re not?